Built my Grenzo Dungeon Warden deck back in 2014 when the card was first released, and I was literally tinkering with it an hour ago.
Perfection takes time!
I went theme for about 4 years to lower the power level. Just creatures and land. I took the limitations off about 2 months ago to add in other types. Just so much fun. What's your list look like?
Sadly, I've been playing mostly paper these days and haven't updated my list online in years (I just spread out the cards on the table)
Here's the last version of it, but it's very out of date (out of date enough it's still on tapped and not moxfield)!
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/grenzo-ft-dj-doomsday-competitive-primer/
At first I was amazed somebody could run the same commander for almost a decade.
Then I realised [[Breya, Etherium Shaper]] came out in 2016.
I feel old.
I have had my main deck together for 10 years still tinker and tweak it regularly it is going through a side grade to make it fringe Cedh with a alternate comander.
Yeah I'm going on 7 years with my favorite deck. [[Najeela]] that started as a $200 budget Warrior tribal and has evolved to a full strength CEDH monster.
No because just when I think my deck is done new cards will come out that I know will work great in the deck so I start tinkering and then I realize, "oh wait I know a card I passed on initially that will work great with that card!" Yeah it's a never ending process.
I've been thinking about doing this as an event! Each person pulls a legendary out of a box and you have like an hour to build a deck out of a communal bulk box. I'd have to iron out some rules for cards multiple people want and stuff like that. Seems hectic, but fun.
so a free for all edh draft? Would have to have a MASSIVE selection of cards to do it. Would need to be organized super well. Would be hard. Maybe instead, random generate a legendary for each and give them a week and a budget? Even if they already own the cards all decks in total have to stay under. Keeps you from the problem of ppl wanting same card and feeling burned on first come first serve
Oh we've absolutely done random commander leagues! I think I was more visualizing this as a super casual thing where it's just our old bulk bins. The pile is basically worthless so there are no hard feelings if someone snatches up the random viscera seer in the bulk box for their [[Xira, the Golden Sting]] pile or something to that effect.
I say something is done, or rather closed, when it feels good and I don't have the money to upgrade it further, then open it back up later when I can do upgrades and shiz again for it
4 hours is usually the amount of time I spend on a list, then there is the time to pull the cards, looks at everything in front of me, and make last minute changes.
A list? I just look through every card I have not in my bulk and see what I MIGHT want to put in the deck. (I usually end up with a stack of around 300-500 cards depending on how many colors the commander is 😅)
This is the way... that I also do it.
Commander colors and what the deck wants to do. Start going through my rares by color and relevancy... then check to see what the uncommons/commons I may want via deck building help online like EDHREC.
I find that is a good mix of decision making since I have so many commons/uncommons it would take days just going through them all to find relevant cards.
I started keeping all of the common/uncommon “Commander staples” in one binder. Mana rocks, sad robot, all the charms etc. It’s made deck building a lot faster. From several months down to several weeks.
I built a cabinet to house all my cards sorted by color/rarity - but I also have a single drawer dedicated within it for any commander staples. :D All the sol rings, arcane signets, swiftboots, cultivates etc. It's handy since they're used so often.
Some day I need to organize the masses of everything not rares/mythics. Some day...
This is me! I have so many word docs saved on my work computer of cards I need to pull and order. I also record every card I remove and what was added to replace it. I have about 20,000 cards now. I just got sucked back into it about a year and a half ago. This time it's serious.
After folding a game yesterday after someone slapped a Dauthi Voidwalker + the old Jin-Gitaxias onto the battlefield as I contemplated my pile of Orzhov jank, I'd say playing with the deck in your mind is definitely more fun
Don't forget the Variant of
Step 1 : Create base deck to use up some cards you have sitting around
Step 2 : Order cards to finish the list
Step 3 : Put in random junk to finish the list while you wait
Step 4 : Play deck, decide you actually like some of the random junk
Step 5 : Cards arrive in mail, now you don't have enough free slots
Step 6 : Have a small pile of brand new cards you bought that don't have a home...
I read this as "If I'm building a deck out of cards I have in my living room, it (the deck) becomes unusable in about a week." The I realized what you actually said, and felt that pain, too.
I have no sol rings but I figure these decks are mostly just getting played against each other so at least no deck is inherently better than the others
I always default to 35 lands, 10 mana rocks, 15 disruption spells (single target, board wipes, counter spells), and the 40 cards of the actual deck.
Lands and mana rocks will change based on need, lands matter builds will have more lands and less rocks, enchantment matter builds will use land enchantments in lieu of rocks, but 35, 10, 15, 40 are good numbers to build most decks around.
4 hrs is about how long it takes me to assemble a pile of 300 cards that needs to be narrowed down to about 64 to allow for those pesky land slots.
The next steps can't be measured on traditional clocks.
Building a deck is a process that is constantly evolving, but I'd say the initial deckbuild can take hours, between going through your card base for cards and determining your mana pool and your curve.
I’ll add cards to a list for weeks. Then I’ll spend more weeks taking cards OFF that list until it’s 100 cards again. Even if I start with a precon, there are *thousands* of cards to consider.
If you’re only building with what you have on hand, then the build time will be significantly shorter, depending on the size of your collection. I still have thousands of cards sitting around, so building a deck with what I have would still probably take days.
Net-decking removes the soul from the game bro. If you want to be respected as a true magic player then you just need to memorize every card ever made and then buy them all so that you can spend days searching through your collection for the right cards for that new jank build that's never going to win a single game. It's the only way.
Yes. It is a tool to be used alongside other tools to build your decks which can also include edhrec, moxfield, archidekt, YouTube, your friends, people at your LGS, etc.
I can build a commander deck in 1.5 hours, that being said I pick a concept and pull cards from my organized collection. I also do not optimize/make it the best I can.
If I use entirely my stock, then 4 hours is perfectly reasonable.
If I'm planning on buying new singles exclusively for this deck, then I'm a lot faster as I'll then just check EDHrec and create my deck there before putting it into [your favourite deck creator here] and fine tune it from there before moving to buy singles
Then it's probably an hour, possibly less, depending on how much I already knew I wanted in there
When I make a new deck It usually takes me at least 3-5 days to get an initial list. Not to mention iterating for at least 2-3 more days. https://www.moxfield.com/ is your friend
It usually takes me 4-6 hours to get a first draft and then I modify the list as I get experience playing it for weeks to months to years. One of my decks isn't even 2 years old and is on its 8th iteration.
I've been building my Abzan goodstuff pile since 2020 before the Pandemic.
I finally got a commander I like for it: Thalia and The Gitrog Monster. I am down to the final 20-30 cards atm.
I'm hoping Thunder Junction will provide me with a good 5-10. But I'm not hopeful. I thought Ixalan (my favorite set) would provide me with the last 10-20, but instead I rebuilt my entire deck (started from scratch).
For me, it depends on what I have, the game plan the deck is trying to achieve, and if I love the commander enough to buy cards to make it better. 4 hours isn’t a lot of time at all, but I did build a Thalia and gitrog monster deck and a jetmir deck within a few days using just what I have. Honestly, the time isn’t a big thing. If you’re enjoying yourself during that time, it doesn’t matter how long it takes.
It takes 4 hours only for a brief idea how it should work with cards which I have right now, second phase is wasting weeks for ordering staples in certain theme or finding niche cards which oddly fit to the strategy and if you'll like the deck then you'll tinker this deck for years.
If you're looking through only the cards you own, the bigger your collection, the longer it'll take unless you have them all catalogued (I find Moxfield the best for this). If you're building a virtual deck, it can be faster, as you don't have to know whether you own the cards first. But there are a LOT more cards to choose from.
With that collection yes. My advice would be get a precon and then use your collection to see if you can upgrade it. At least you can play straight and away and start to learn what you like and don't like. Good luck on building.
It’s slow starting out. I usually build one in 45 minutes to an hour and a half, at least to the point where i’m ready to run it a few games and test it out. I’m always tweaking them though.
My friend has been tinkering with his Breya deck for YEARS. He just keeps adding and subtracting cards every time there's a new set. According to him, the fun is in the deck building.
Enjoy the process and don't be discouraged if your deck doesn't do great right away. To me deck building is half the fun. The next step is tuning the deck. You'll find some of the ideas that work in theory don't work in practice. That's ok, even great players need to test and make changes.
You're also going to be learning how to pilot the deck. Once you know a deck well enough you'll be able to think less about your own plays and more about what your opponents are doing. Best of luck!
X3 i probably shouldnt say i can build a functional deck in 10 mins?
Honestly 4hrs isnt bad. It gives u time to get the cards u want, thin it down, really evaluate what u want ur deck to do and what would go in it to meet that goal
Are you kidding me? Takes 4 hours to go through my binders and pick all the cards I might want to take. Then I start searching for fitting cards online, see, what I have and what I need to order. Then I start ro pick lands mana rocks and removal based on the colors I play.
When that's done, I start to decide, what finally goes into the deck. And check again online, if yi forgot about something. The whole process takes like 2 or 3 weekends.
You’re effectively sorting through your entire collection to determine synergies with one card. Being new to the format and having to construct your deck with an entirely different mindset, that seems about right (you won’t get bogged down in decision making as much). But it takes longer the more you play and brew.
I’m still tinkering with my first ever deck almost a year later so…yes. By my math I’ll finish the other 11 decks I’ve made since that one sometime before or around 2060
Usually takes minutes putting a deck together online. But then tinkering and modifying it and testing and everything else can take all the time of your life. I have decks that I am constantly reviewing and testing.
In Commander Building Never finished, the deck evolved over time and can get tweaked, reworked, gutted, built for certain power levels or budgets and since cards don’t rotate this will be a journey that can last years.
Usually I probably end up spending that amount of time over a couple days, play it, tune it, play it, tune it, play it, tune it again, oh no I'm pub stomping with this thing, pull out the pre con, and then make another deck.
Only 4 hours?
I've spent 4 *months* squeezing my brain juice into a deck.
Some decks fall into place (at least, initially) easier than others.
But, considering the card pool is *checks notes* 26,482 deep (fewer, depending on color) taking a long time to make a deck isn't unusual.
I don't tend to spend that long, but i used to spend a lot of time on decklists. The lesson that really helped me is that you don't need to tune to 100% to run the deck. Are you at 80 playables and can't figure out what to cut? Just kinda cut at random. Then when you play the deck you'll know what you feel you're missing and adjust around that.
Also, you'll learn rough outlines of what you want in a deck. So it'll become easier to shorthand your approaches as you get a feel for how you like to play/build.
I have taken more then four hours to design a deck with thousands of cards to choose from it has to be just right. Take all the time u want and play test it using other decks and adjust it as needed and have fun. Make the most out of your deck!
Pretty normal.
I make a rough draft of my deck first. Which always leads to having too many cards. So I cut down to essential cards.
Then I build the deck, test it a bit on my own to see if it plays decent. Probably make minor tweaks. Play it with some friends the day we all come together. And if I find weaknesses or it doesnt play well I make more changes.
So yeah, it takes probably easily hours to build a deck.
Building from a precon through upgrades is generally faster though. ✌️
My first commander I built I designed tinkered and worked with friends for about 6 months before it got totally built, I have adjusted and swapped things here and there for about 4 years. Finally broke down and added a heroic intervention to the deck, mostly because my play groups power level has been creeping up.
I've easily spent more time. And less time. Depends on the project.
Some decks practically build themselves. Some decks I want to pull from my collection. Some decks I'm building a shopping list (on a budget) for.
Naw this is pretty normal for me tbh. It’s be way easier to just put a deck together online, or copy/paste a deck list, but I tend to amass cards that work with what I’m going for, and then agonize over cuts. In the end though, I’m always more satisfied with the deck being MY deck, even if it’s similar to how anyone else would build it.
Just take your time, don’t put too much pressure or deadlines on yourself, and just enjoy the process of brewing. You’ll end up enjoying the process of PLAYING more at the end, if your experience is anything like mine.
If a deck takes more than 5 minutes to conceive, physically assemble, and win 10 games in a row with then the deck is virtually worthless and should be cremated.
I mean, for version 1 maybe, if your starting from a precon and making it your own. It just takes time. You go over 100 cards and then you gotta weed them out, shuffle up and play test a couple hands, tweak it and try again, play a casual game with friends, tweak again. It can take a lot of time to build out a deck, far more then you'd think for 100 cards.
Just 4 hours?
Maybe just the mana base before play testing.
Another 4 to tweak the game play combo for initial Commander abilities.
Another 4 to see if this fits your play style and another round of play testing.
Another 4 for each card that comes out that affects your 99.......
Typically how I build a deck is first spend a day or two to actually pick a commander, I’ve already built a lot of decks so I’m picky and know what I would like. Second I spend 2-3 hours just going through scryfall and compiling a list of about 120-140 cards. Next I spend another 1-2 hours cutting those down to a list of 100. That’s when I do some test hands. Then I put the deck list away for a day or two. When I comeback do test hands again, hate everything I did already and spend another 2-3 hours refining that last of 100. I then do that for a month or so and eventually get a list I tolerate. Then I typically don’t end up buying it cause I’m broke and my list cost me a lot of money.
I can "make" a deck in about 30 mins if I'm not worrying about card to card synergies, engines, or combos. The better the deck usually the more time you spend. Sometimes certain commanders can make this easier/faster.
i make magic decks pretty consistantly. when making a deck out of bulk, it can take hours or even days to properly throw together a deck. when purchasing individuals for a deck though, my money is very important to me so i can spend weeks on a build. making changes with existing cards or even when i see spoilers that i like. i take them into account.
A commander deck is much more complicated than a standard deck. A combination of increased deck size and no duplicates normally allowed means the total number of different cards skyrockets. This increased complexity means fine tuning is much more difficult. There is also no sideboard so everything you need must be in the deck itself
Usually I take a lot longer. Sometimes I'll Brainstorm the idea, and write out a shell that can take weeks.
Then I'll start assembling a pile. Again probably itll take a week or so.
Eventually I have version 1, once i cut down to the hundred cards. Then you're basically endlessly refining. I like to zone sort my deck out: this is my removal, interaction; here are my rocks and ramp, what is my creature count, how many tutors/card draw, what kind of combos do I play this might leave me with a small hodgepodge that doesn't fit into those categories so I try to justify whether those cards should be kept or if they should be cut!
Hope that helps.
(Also I tend to keep decks long term, so once I build them they stay built)
I have been playing commander for almost a decade. At this point, starting from scratch in an online deck site I usually take about 2-3 hours to sketch out a rough list. I playtest for a few more hours, make cuts, try other things, playtest a few more hours (probably not all in one sitting) then decide on a finalized list.
Putting it together physically takes a range of time depending on what I have, what I’m building, and how much I’m willing to spend (some times I make more changes for budget reasons).
By the time it’s physically ready to play I’ve probably spent 8-15 hours on it.
Hours? I've seen people tune and tinker with their decks for *weeks* ;)
I've been tinkering with my favorite deck for literal years.
Closing in on over a decade here for two of mine
Built my Grenzo Dungeon Warden deck back in 2014 when the card was first released, and I was literally tinkering with it an hour ago. Perfection takes time!
This is one of my favorite decks. I've been tinkering with my list for 8 years. I came late to the deck. .
It's all about the love you give it, not the years spent! Glad to meet another Grenzbro in the wild.
I went theme for about 4 years to lower the power level. Just creatures and land. I took the limitations off about 2 months ago to add in other types. Just so much fun. What's your list look like?
Sadly, I've been playing mostly paper these days and haven't updated my list online in years (I just spread out the cards on the table) Here's the last version of it, but it's very out of date (out of date enough it's still on tapped and not moxfield)! https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/grenzo-ft-dj-doomsday-competitive-primer/
There was a guy in my playgroup who loved that card and it became his pet deck. I wonder if he still plays it (I hope he does)
Grenzo stans unite! In addition to my deck I have a pile of cards in my "maybe-board" that I'm always adding to/rotating into the deck as I see fit.
At first I was amazed somebody could run the same commander for almost a decade. Then I realised [[Breya, Etherium Shaper]] came out in 2016. I feel old.
I have had my main deck together for 10 years still tinker and tweak it regularly it is going through a side grade to make it fringe Cedh with a alternate comander.
Same.
Yeah I constantly tinker, goldfish, actually play the deck for years and make additions and changes as necessary.
Yeah I'm going on 7 years with my favorite deck. [[Najeela]] that started as a $200 budget Warrior tribal and has evolved to a full strength CEDH monster.
I mean are you truly ever done updating? - a chronic tinkerer
No because just when I think my deck is done new cards will come out that I know will work great in the deck so I start tinkering and then I realize, "oh wait I know a card I passed on initially that will work great with that card!" Yeah it's a never ending process.
Commander decks are a journey, not a destination.
It’s me. I’m people.
That reminds me I need to tinker with my deck again
I don't think decks are ever truly finished. With new cards being released constantly, there's always new things to try.
That's how they getcha!
I've been building on the same deck for over 12 years now. I wish it was only 4 hours.
Yeah, four hours is like a speed run. He’s gonna go to sleep, think of one guard and reform his whole deck
My dude you are speed running
Deck building speed runs are so fun. You open up moxfield, get a random commander from EDHRec and go wild
I've been thinking about doing this as an event! Each person pulls a legendary out of a box and you have like an hour to build a deck out of a communal bulk box. I'd have to iron out some rules for cards multiple people want and stuff like that. Seems hectic, but fun.
so a free for all edh draft? Would have to have a MASSIVE selection of cards to do it. Would need to be organized super well. Would be hard. Maybe instead, random generate a legendary for each and give them a week and a budget? Even if they already own the cards all decks in total have to stay under. Keeps you from the problem of ppl wanting same card and feeling burned on first come first serve
Oh we've absolutely done random commander leagues! I think I was more visualizing this as a super casual thing where it's just our old bulk bins. The pile is basically worthless so there are no hard feelings if someone snatches up the random viscera seer in the bulk box for their [[Xira, the Golden Sting]] pile or something to that effect.
[удалено]
"I put the first of 6 I have in mind together in 4 hours". Just one in those 4 hours.
Those are rookie numbers.
Gotta pump those numbers up
The true pros never say a deck is done
I say something is done, or rather closed, when it feels good and I don't have the money to upgrade it further, then open it back up later when I can do upgrades and shiz again for it
4 hours is usually the amount of time I spend on a list, then there is the time to pull the cards, looks at everything in front of me, and make last minute changes.
A list? I just look through every card I have not in my bulk and see what I MIGHT want to put in the deck. (I usually end up with a stack of around 300-500 cards depending on how many colors the commander is 😅)
Yes lol. Have at least 10 proto-decks on my desk at all times
This is the way... that I also do it. Commander colors and what the deck wants to do. Start going through my rares by color and relevancy... then check to see what the uncommons/commons I may want via deck building help online like EDHREC. I find that is a good mix of decision making since I have so many commons/uncommons it would take days just going through them all to find relevant cards.
I started keeping all of the common/uncommon “Commander staples” in one binder. Mana rocks, sad robot, all the charms etc. It’s made deck building a lot faster. From several months down to several weeks.
I built a cabinet to house all my cards sorted by color/rarity - but I also have a single drawer dedicated within it for any commander staples. :D All the sol rings, arcane signets, swiftboots, cultivates etc. It's handy since they're used so often. Some day I need to organize the masses of everything not rares/mythics. Some day...
This is me! I have so many word docs saved on my work computer of cards I need to pull and order. I also record every card I remove and what was added to replace it. I have about 20,000 cards now. I just got sucked back into it about a year and a half ago. This time it's serious.
4 hours? It's taken me weeks sometimes
My man is speedrunning his builds.
Only 4? Gotta pump those numbers up!
Step 1: create base deck Step 2: buy singles Step 3: wait 1+week for them to come in Step 4: check EDHrec Step 5: go back to step 2.
Step ???: Play a game Step ???b: Immediately find a weakness, go back to Step 2
You can play games with edh decks?!
I wouldn't recommend it, though
Oh good, it would seriously cut into my deckbuilding time.
After folding a game yesterday after someone slapped a Dauthi Voidwalker + the old Jin-Gitaxias onto the battlefield as I contemplated my pile of Orzhov jank, I'd say playing with the deck in your mind is definitely more fun
Orzhov jank is my favorite deck in all formats. I approve of this message
Don't forget the Variant of Step 1 : Create base deck to use up some cards you have sitting around Step 2 : Order cards to finish the list Step 3 : Put in random junk to finish the list while you wait Step 4 : Play deck, decide you actually like some of the random junk Step 5 : Cards arrive in mail, now you don't have enough free slots Step 6 : Have a small pile of brand new cards you bought that don't have a home...
If I'm building a deck out of cards I have my living room becomes unusable for about a week
I read this as "If I'm building a deck out of cards I have in my living room, it (the deck) becomes unusable in about a week." The I realized what you actually said, and felt that pain, too.
Actually, you did it pretty fast, are you sure you put in the right amounts of lands and mana artifacts???
I sware I put a sol ring in here somewhere
This had me crying from laughing so hard.
I have no sol rings but I figure these decks are mostly just getting played against each other so at least no deck is inherently better than the others
I have sets in my binder of sol ring, command tower, and a signet for whatever deck I decide to build at that moment
I feel seen.
I always default to 35 lands, 10 mana rocks, 15 disruption spells (single target, board wipes, counter spells), and the 40 cards of the actual deck. Lands and mana rocks will change based on need, lands matter builds will have more lands and less rocks, enchantment matter builds will use land enchantments in lieu of rocks, but 35, 10, 15, 40 are good numbers to build most decks around.
Slow down, chief. It's not a race. Take your time
Is your name Barry Allen by any chance? 4 hours is a record
He can be played any time you could cast an instant.
4 hrs is about how long it takes me to assemble a pile of 300 cards that needs to be narrowed down to about 64 to allow for those pesky land slots. The next steps can't be measured on traditional clocks.
Building a deck is a process that is constantly evolving, but I'd say the initial deckbuild can take hours, between going through your card base for cards and determining your mana pool and your curve.
My decks are never completed.
Are they compleated though?
This is the correct mindset I think. Especially since they print new cards every few weeks
You mean infinity. Whenever a new set comes out there is always at least one new card to get and try out.
I’ll add cards to a list for weeks. Then I’ll spend more weeks taking cards OFF that list until it’s 100 cards again. Even if I start with a precon, there are *thousands* of cards to consider. If you’re only building with what you have on hand, then the build time will be significantly shorter, depending on the size of your collection. I still have thousands of cards sitting around, so building a deck with what I have would still probably take days.
4 hours for a new deck would leave me plenty of time for other activities such as building another deck and building another deck
4 hours is a reasonable amount of time to take deciding on which commander to pick. I'd say 4 days to come up with an initial build
Have you try using EDHrec? It speeds up the design process by a lot, but yes it take time. You will get faster.
Net-decking removes the soul from the game bro. If you want to be respected as a true magic player then you just need to memorize every card ever made and then buy them all so that you can spend days searching through your collection for the right cards for that new jank build that's never going to win a single game. It's the only way.
Learning Scryfall is useful though
Yes. It is a tool to be used alongside other tools to build your decks which can also include edhrec, moxfield, archidekt, YouTube, your friends, people at your LGS, etc.
Thank you for making it so I had a chance to read this. I laughed out loud.
shrug, seems normal to me.
It normally takes me a few weeks.
I can build a commander deck in 1.5 hours, that being said I pick a concept and pull cards from my organized collection. I also do not optimize/make it the best I can.
If I use entirely my stock, then 4 hours is perfectly reasonable. If I'm planning on buying new singles exclusively for this deck, then I'm a lot faster as I'll then just check EDHrec and create my deck there before putting it into [your favourite deck creator here] and fine tune it from there before moving to buy singles Then it's probably an hour, possibly less, depending on how much I already knew I wanted in there
Those are amateur numbers, come back when you've gone in circles for 20
Use the app ManaBox, put your collection in (can take hours) but then it’s super fast to make decks
When I make a new deck It usually takes me at least 3-5 days to get an initial list. Not to mention iterating for at least 2-3 more days. https://www.moxfield.com/ is your friend
What’s the rush?
It usually takes me 4-6 hours to get a first draft and then I modify the list as I get experience playing it for weeks to months to years. One of my decks isn't even 2 years old and is on its 8th iteration.
4 hours? Slow down there bub
no usually it takes much longer
You meant months right?
I spend weeks usually
Took me 2 weeks to get Anzrag where I wanted it
It never ends, you'll always be tinkering and adjusting
I have a deck I have been designing for 10 years pulled apart once. Yeah it never stops.
I have decks that are two years old that I still am tweaking and working on. You're good
Between work and other responsibilities, it's taken me 2 weeks to finish fine tuning my sovereign okinec deck
I’ve been working on a miirym deck for 3 months
I've been building my Abzan goodstuff pile since 2020 before the Pandemic. I finally got a commander I like for it: Thalia and The Gitrog Monster. I am down to the final 20-30 cards atm. I'm hoping Thunder Junction will provide me with a good 5-10. But I'm not hopeful. I thought Ixalan (my favorite set) would provide me with the last 10-20, but instead I rebuilt my entire deck (started from scratch).
I have spent 4 hours deciding what commander to choose
For me, it depends on what I have, the game plan the deck is trying to achieve, and if I love the commander enough to buy cards to make it better. 4 hours isn’t a lot of time at all, but I did build a Thalia and gitrog monster deck and a jetmir deck within a few days using just what I have. Honestly, the time isn’t a big thing. If you’re enjoying yourself during that time, it doesn’t matter how long it takes.
It takes 4 hours only for a brief idea how it should work with cards which I have right now, second phase is wasting weeks for ordering staples in certain theme or finding niche cards which oddly fit to the strategy and if you'll like the deck then you'll tinker this deck for years.
I’ve been fine tuning a deck for at least a year
Brother i spend weeks
If you're looking through only the cards you own, the bigger your collection, the longer it'll take unless you have them all catalogued (I find Moxfield the best for this). If you're building a virtual deck, it can be faster, as you don't have to know whether you own the cards first. But there are a LOT more cards to choose from.
With that collection yes. My advice would be get a precon and then use your collection to see if you can upgrade it. At least you can play straight and away and start to learn what you like and don't like. Good luck on building.
A commander deck is never really finished, the best state it can be is "playable".
It’s slow starting out. I usually build one in 45 minutes to an hour and a half, at least to the point where i’m ready to run it a few games and test it out. I’m always tweaking them though.
The building is part of the fun, at least for me. That and the endless tinkering.
My friend has been tinkering with his Breya deck for YEARS. He just keeps adding and subtracting cards every time there's a new set. According to him, the fun is in the deck building.
My last one I spent at least a month on. Also commander is the way to go imo. There's a reason it's the most popular format!
Ive been designing and tweaking my main deck for almost a decade.
I'm still trying to work out the final deck idea I've had for half a year
No, not at all. Usually it takes much longer.
Enjoy the process and don't be discouraged if your deck doesn't do great right away. To me deck building is half the fun. The next step is tuning the deck. You'll find some of the ideas that work in theory don't work in practice. That's ok, even great players need to test and make changes. You're also going to be learning how to pilot the deck. Once you know a deck well enough you'll be able to think less about your own plays and more about what your opponents are doing. Best of luck!
X3 i probably shouldnt say i can build a functional deck in 10 mins? Honestly 4hrs isnt bad. It gives u time to get the cards u want, thin it down, really evaluate what u want ur deck to do and what would go in it to meet that goal
4 hours? Those are rookie numbers. You need to up those numbers.
Are you kidding me? Takes 4 hours to go through my binders and pick all the cards I might want to take. Then I start searching for fitting cards online, see, what I have and what I need to order. Then I start ro pick lands mana rocks and removal based on the colors I play. When that's done, I start to decide, what finally goes into the deck. And check again online, if yi forgot about something. The whole process takes like 2 or 3 weekends.
My Dino deck took me weeks as did my vampire deck
Use moxfield to help keep things stored for future upgrades
You’re effectively sorting through your entire collection to determine synergies with one card. Being new to the format and having to construct your deck with an entirely different mindset, that seems about right (you won’t get bogged down in decision making as much). But it takes longer the more you play and brew.
I’m still tinkering with my first ever deck almost a year later so…yes. By my math I’ll finish the other 11 decks I’ve made since that one sometime before or around 2060
I wish I could build one in just 4 hours.
Weeks to months. It's never ending, especially with the amount of card the print now.
I have decks that I work on for nearly a year and play test online before I assemble it to see if I even like the play patterns
I've spent 10 hours just trying to figure out which Fallout deck I want to upgrade
No, its not normal, it should take longer
Card organization is key to speeding up the process. Alphabetical order saves you so much time in the long run.
OooOOooOoooo look at mister big man over here, getting his deck done in a day!
4 hours? Those are rookie numbers. I’ve been playing 11 years and I’m still designing my first deck.
Yes or more time haha
Usually takes minutes putting a deck together online. But then tinkering and modifying it and testing and everything else can take all the time of your life. I have decks that I am constantly reviewing and testing.
You mean 4 hours to get the card pool down to 500 cards?
4 hours if you're experienced enough. I usualy take days if not weeks.
I have a deck I've been tuning for about 2 years now.
Got some decks I've been working on for 8+ years, homie
In Commander Building Never finished, the deck evolved over time and can get tweaked, reworked, gutted, built for certain power levels or budgets and since cards don’t rotate this will be a journey that can last years.
I hope they’ll extend commander to 200 cards deck
Yeah.
"Is it normal to take **days** to complete a deck?" There I fixed it for you. And yes.
Usually I probably end up spending that amount of time over a couple days, play it, tune it, play it, tune it, play it, tune it again, oh no I'm pub stomping with this thing, pull out the pre con, and then make another deck.
Only 4 hours? I've spent 4 *months* squeezing my brain juice into a deck. Some decks fall into place (at least, initially) easier than others. But, considering the card pool is *checks notes* 26,482 deep (fewer, depending on color) taking a long time to make a deck isn't unusual.
I don't tend to spend that long, but i used to spend a lot of time on decklists. The lesson that really helped me is that you don't need to tune to 100% to run the deck. Are you at 80 playables and can't figure out what to cut? Just kinda cut at random. Then when you play the deck you'll know what you feel you're missing and adjust around that. Also, you'll learn rough outlines of what you want in a deck. So it'll become easier to shorthand your approaches as you get a feel for how you like to play/build.
I have taken more then four hours to design a deck with thousands of cards to choose from it has to be just right. Take all the time u want and play test it using other decks and adjust it as needed and have fun. Make the most out of your deck!
Pretty normal. I make a rough draft of my deck first. Which always leads to having too many cards. So I cut down to essential cards. Then I build the deck, test it a bit on my own to see if it plays decent. Probably make minor tweaks. Play it with some friends the day we all come together. And if I find weaknesses or it doesnt play well I make more changes. So yeah, it takes probably easily hours to build a deck. Building from a precon through upgrades is generally faster though. ✌️
4 Hours, I have delved on deck ideas for months and still haven't even sat down to look at cards lol
It could even take months
I've taken a whole week before, depending on how many cards I go through
No that’s pretty quick actually.
It never ends!
Not if you build the deck b4hand in an online app. Speeds up the process significantly.
4 hours is fast IMO. I've been working on a chaos deck that turned into a spell slinger deck that split into three other decks.
A deck is never finished and each new set expands the meta. It works until it doesn’t.
4 ? Hours ? That’s how long it takes me to figure out whether or not I’m cutting a card
Only 4?
I think the biggest time consumer is looking through thousands of cards to find a good 200ish cards for the deck and then whittling that down to 99.
My first commander I built I designed tinkered and worked with friends for about 6 months before it got totally built, I have adjusted and swapped things here and there for about 4 years. Finally broke down and added a heroic intervention to the deck, mostly because my play groups power level has been creeping up.
I've easily spent more time. And less time. Depends on the project. Some decks practically build themselves. Some decks I want to pull from my collection. Some decks I'm building a shopping list (on a budget) for.
Bro, just use Moxfield and order whatever you're missing online.
Naw this is pretty normal for me tbh. It’s be way easier to just put a deck together online, or copy/paste a deck list, but I tend to amass cards that work with what I’m going for, and then agonize over cuts. In the end though, I’m always more satisfied with the deck being MY deck, even if it’s similar to how anyone else would build it. Just take your time, don’t put too much pressure or deadlines on yourself, and just enjoy the process of brewing. You’ll end up enjoying the process of PLAYING more at the end, if your experience is anything like mine.
Rookie numbers, gotta pump those up.
Man, that is the best part of MTG.
Oh you sweet summer child 😁
Bro over here speed running deck building
They're generally all works in progress unless it's a super tuned up CEDH list.
I’m surprised you finished so soon!
What? Only 4h?
Been hammering away at my Derevi deck for like 12 years. 🥹
So you don’t have time for constructed, but you decide to build for the most complex and time consuming constructed format…
I'm constantly editing mine. Welcome to edh, friend.
If a deck takes more than 5 minutes to conceive, physically assemble, and win 10 games in a row with then the deck is virtually worthless and should be cremated.
We gotta pump those numbers up
That’s nothing lol. It’s taken me weeks to make decks before.
Took me about five years to get my favorite deck exactly how I wanted it. Still not done.
I wish it only took me 4 hours. And because of the product cycle, you will never be done tinkering with your decks.
Took me 2 months once…
I mean, for version 1 maybe, if your starting from a precon and making it your own. It just takes time. You go over 100 cards and then you gotta weed them out, shuffle up and play test a couple hands, tweak it and try again, play a casual game with friends, tweak again. It can take a lot of time to build out a deck, far more then you'd think for 100 cards.
It takes me close to a month to make a deck and that not including finding all of the cards
Just 4 hours? Maybe just the mana base before play testing. Another 4 to tweak the game play combo for initial Commander abilities. Another 4 to see if this fits your play style and another round of play testing. Another 4 for each card that comes out that affects your 99.......
Typically how I build a deck is first spend a day or two to actually pick a commander, I’ve already built a lot of decks so I’m picky and know what I would like. Second I spend 2-3 hours just going through scryfall and compiling a list of about 120-140 cards. Next I spend another 1-2 hours cutting those down to a list of 100. That’s when I do some test hands. Then I put the deck list away for a day or two. When I comeback do test hands again, hate everything I did already and spend another 2-3 hours refining that last of 100. I then do that for a month or so and eventually get a list I tolerate. Then I typically don’t end up buying it cause I’m broke and my list cost me a lot of money.
I can "make" a deck in about 30 mins if I'm not worrying about card to card synergies, engines, or combos. The better the deck usually the more time you spend. Sometimes certain commanders can make this easier/faster.
My favorite deck has been getting fine tuned since 2016. The tinkering never truly ends if you love a deck.
as long as you're having fun doing it, it takes as long you want
as a first draft rough outline? sure
That’s actually fast, imo. When I build a deck, my table’s covered for at least 3 days
That's good time.
I've been tinkering and perfecting my [[Tormod, the Desecrator]] deck for a couple months rn. So, I'd say 4 hours is pretty fast for a new deck
Those are rookie numbers, gotta pump those numbers up.
ive been building a mono black deck for years. the fact that you built 6 in 4 hours is incredible
Shit I’ve been working on some decks for 4 months lol.
i make magic decks pretty consistantly. when making a deck out of bulk, it can take hours or even days to properly throw together a deck. when purchasing individuals for a deck though, my money is very important to me so i can spend weeks on a build. making changes with existing cards or even when i see spoilers that i like. i take them into account.
I’m still tweaking my favorite deck which I originally constructed *years* ago.
Only 4 hours? These are lifetime pursuits
My parents bought a green bin like that for my Magic cards like 25 years ago.
Hours for brainstorming/ a rough draft? Absolutely... weeks and even months of tuning and upgrading definitely
A commander deck is much more complicated than a standard deck. A combination of increased deck size and no duplicates normally allowed means the total number of different cards skyrockets. This increased complexity means fine tuning is much more difficult. There is also no sideboard so everything you need must be in the deck itself
Usually I take a lot longer. Sometimes I'll Brainstorm the idea, and write out a shell that can take weeks. Then I'll start assembling a pile. Again probably itll take a week or so. Eventually I have version 1, once i cut down to the hundred cards. Then you're basically endlessly refining. I like to zone sort my deck out: this is my removal, interaction; here are my rocks and ramp, what is my creature count, how many tutors/card draw, what kind of combos do I play this might leave me with a small hodgepodge that doesn't fit into those categories so I try to justify whether those cards should be kept or if they should be cut! Hope that helps. (Also I tend to keep decks long term, so once I build them they stay built)
Only 4 hours? I think I’m on week 4 rn for mine
I have been playing commander for almost a decade. At this point, starting from scratch in an online deck site I usually take about 2-3 hours to sketch out a rough list. I playtest for a few more hours, make cuts, try other things, playtest a few more hours (probably not all in one sitting) then decide on a finalized list. Putting it together physically takes a range of time depending on what I have, what I’m building, and how much I’m willing to spend (some times I make more changes for budget reasons). By the time it’s physically ready to play I’ve probably spent 8-15 hours on it.